Wine Whine #8

Wine Whine for April


Welcome Ed Pencer of Lanark to the “Whine”.

This month’s “Whine” is divided into three sections. First, I am going to tell you about an attempt to choose between Argentinian Malbecs and French Cots (the name for Malbec in the Cahors region of southeast France.) As someone who once taught a course in research methodology this story is a tad embarrassing.

Second, I am going to begin a series of “whines” about how to read labels. This subject is sufficiently complex that I am going to tackle only one or two countries at a time.

Finally, there are some comments on Opimian Cellar Offering # 188.

The Less than Perfect Evaluation

I mentioned in an earlier “Whine” that I was less than impressed with the Nova Scotia Liquor Commission’s refusal to stock wine from Cahors. The argument is that Cot or Malbec from Cahors is inferior to Malbec from Argentina and therefore if put on sale in Nova Scotia the wine would never leave the shelves.

While in Ontario recently I picked up a couple of bottles of Cahors (an ‘04 Chateau Haut Monplasisir at $ 17.95 and an ‘07 Croix du Mayre at $ 18.30). I decided to match the first French wine against an ‘05 Trapiche Broquel, picked up on sale for $ 11.88, and to match the second French wine against an ‘05 Don David Reserve, purchased for $ 16.79.

Now if you are bored with research methodology skip the rest of this. However, the moral of the story relates more to my errors in method than in my giving any real enlightenment on wine choice.

Thinking I was being quite clever, I pre-poured the Monplasisir and the Trapiche and passed two glasses to each of my 10 guests. The task for the guests was to select the preferred wine by indicating whether they liked the wine from the Riedel Cabernet glass, or the wine from the non-Riedel Burgundy glass. To control for the difference in the glasses half of the guinea pigs got the Cahors in the Cabernet glasses and the other half got the Trapiche in the Cabernet glasses.

When 5 guests chose the Cahors and 5 chose the Argentinian Malbec I thought I had determined that the two wines were of equal quality. Then I realized that 8 out of 10 picked the wine from the Cabernet glass, which of course was the more appropriate vessel for serving a tannic Malbec. Cabernet glasses are relatively high and narrow and shoot the wine to the back of the tongue where the bitter receptors are located.

O.K., having at least two interpretations of the results I then gave the second pair of wines to the guests. This time the guests poured their own wine into whatever glass they wished. Their only task was to indicate from which decanter came their preferred wine. This time, 10 out of 10 chose the Don David.

However, before I admit that the buyer from NSCL really knows his stuff I have to caution that this comparison may have been quite unfair as the Cahors was an ‘07 and perhaps not cellared sufficiently to mellow out the tannins.

By this time I was feeling so inadequate that I broke out the ’05 Trapiche Vina Francisco Oliva (an overall winner from last fall’s Halifax wine fair) and let my guests mellow out on one of the best wines from my cellar. After all, they deserved it.

South American Wine Labels

Nova Scotians buy a lot of wine from Chile and Argentina, mostly because these wines are of such good value. Argentina and Chile are the 5th and 10th largest producers of wine in the world. They are the 5th and 25th per capita consumers of wine. Canadians, on the other hand, are the 30th in terms of consumption and don’t even rate on the production side. One more bit of trivia. For every bottle of wine drunk by a Canadian, an Argentinian drinks three and a French person drinks five. Betty and I, of course, are doing our very best to raise the Canadian consumption average.

The question, however, is how do you choose a good wine when faced with a bewildering array of bottles at your local government store? Well, the short answer is to read the label carefully. The problem is that each country has a somewhat different system of labeling wine. France, for example, has very rigid laws which control what a wine can be called. Unfortunately, these laws are somewhat antiquated and are seemingly designed to make choice more rather than less difficult. I strongly believe that France wine exports would be rising (rather than currently declining) if they would only consult with me about what consumers on this side of the Atlantic need to see on the label. However, I’ll come back to this in later issues of the Whine.

The quality of a wine depends on lots of factors including the terroir (soil), the age of the vines, the climate, whether or not the vines have been overcropped, the skill of the vintner, the length of cellaring, and of course the varietal (kind of grape). Unlike Europeans, South American producers always prominently display the grape, including the percentages of each grape in a blended wine. Argentinians are best at big, fully flavored tannic wines. Thus, if choosing an Argentinian wine it’s almost impossible to go wrong with Malbec, and their Cabernet Sauvignons are also good. Chile, on the other hand, is the only country in the world to produce Carmenere. Chile is also very good with Cabernets. By the way Carmenere was a varietal grown in France until the phylloxera louse devastated European vineyards in the 19th century. Now varietals the world over are are grafted onto phylloxera-resistant roots. The only exception is in Chile where Cabernets vines are grown on Cabernet roots and Merlots on Merlot, etc. If you want to spend a very long time in a South American prison try smuggling a wine shoot across the Andes into Chile.

Chile and Argentina have copied the Spanish in labeling their better wines “reserva” and their best wines “gran reserva”. The difference is that in Spain these terms are controlled by the government and there are strict laws about how long the wines must be oak-barreled before these terms may go on the label. In South America the terms are left to the producer to decide when to use. Nonetheless, if the label says either “reserva” or “gran reserva” you will not be disappointed.

Like car manufacturers wine producers in South America give brand names to their wines. So, just as you know that a Honda Civic is a cheaper car than a Honda Accord, you can tell a lot by the name a wine producer uses. So, for example, the biggest producer in Chile (Concha y Toro) calls their poorest Frontera and the best wines Don Melchor.

What follows are some hints that will help you choose a South American wine. I am going to list some common wine producers (like saying Honda or Toyota). Then I’ll give a brand that is at least one up from the bottom (like saying Accord or Camray).
So, for example you will find lots of Carmen wines in Nova Scotia. However, if the wine is a Carmen Nativa that means it’s better than a plain old Carmen.


From Chile:

Carmen: Nativa
Baron Philippe de Rothschild Maipo Chile: Escudo Rojo
Caliterra: Caliterra Reserva
Canepa : Malbec Private Reserve
Casa Lapostolle : Cuvee Alexandre
Concha y Toro : Trio or Marques de Casa Concha (avoid Castilla del Diablo)
Luis Felipe Edwards : Reserva, Gran Reserva, or Pupillo
Miguel Torres Chile: Don Miquel
Montes: Alpha
Santa Rita : Casa Real
Villard Estate : Expresion

From Argentina :

Etchart : Etchart Cafayate
Finca Las Moras : Reserve or Andean
J & F Lurton : Gran Lurton or Piedra Negra
La Rosa : These are called Cornellena if sold by Opimium so buy the Barrel Reserve
Michel Torino: Don David
Norton: Privata Estate Reserva
Salentein: Estate range or Primus range although all Salentein’s are great
Santa Rita Argentina: Dona Paula Estate
Trapiche: Oak cask

Opimian Cellar Offering # 188

This month Opimian offers wines only from Bordeaux. Wines from Bordeaux have long been considered the best wines in the world. While this may indeed be true, what is even more true is that they are not the best valued wines in the world. So what do I have to say about Offering 188. Firstly, most of the wines need cellaring, so if you are not prepared to lay down your wine, perhaps you would be better saving your money for a different offering. On the other hand, if you are building up your cellar you will want some good French wine for special occasions.

I am only going to mention two wines. # 5068 Chateau Chante Alouette is affordable at $ 17.75 a bottle. You will perhaps find it interesting because it is from Fronsac, a bluff overlooking the confluence of the Dordogne and the Isle rivers. This will be an intense wine with lots of tannin, and may remind you of a New World wine. After all the French can made “big” wines.

The second I am mentioning is just in case you want to lay down a very good, expensive wine, and then bring out a dusty bottle every couple of years for those very special occasions. # 5078 Chateau Hortevie, Saint-Julien is the kind of wine you only drink on a special occasion (and maybe only when the market is doing well again). This is an 06 and I laid down a case of 02 a while back. I opened the first bottle last night and it still needs a couple of years to reach its potential. For one of my favorite readers who is amused by wine jargon, this wine can be described as having silken tannins (that means it is dry in the mouth making your canines seem like they are being tugged, while at the same time gliding across your tongue giving a sensation that is almost sexual).